Judgment

WANCHOO, J. : The appeal and the writ petition arise out of the same order of the Chief Commissioner of Pondicherry acting as the appellate authority under the Motor Vehicles Act and will be dealt with together. The petitioner is one of fourteen persons who had applied for a stage carriage permit before the State Transport Authority, Pondicherry. The petitioner s application was rejected and the permit was granted to Perumal Padayatchi, one of the respondents before us. The State Transport Authority considered various factors one of which was that Perumal Padayatchi was a native of Pondicherry and taking all the factors into account, the permit was granted to Perumal Padayatchi. The petitioner went in appeal before the Appellate Authority, who is the Chief Commissioner of Pondicherry. The Appellate Authority dismissed the appeal and observed that even if it were conceded that the claims of the petitioner were more or less equal to those of Perumal Padayatchi, the latter would be entitled to preference on the ground that he is a native of Pondicherry. We may add that though the petitioner used to live in Pondicherry, he was not a native of Pondicherry. This order rejecting t